The LAT Engagement Team, which consists of Careers, Working with Business and the Leigh Aspire Programme, was delighted to deliver a workshop at the recent Leigh Academies Trust staff conference. The conference was hosted simultaneously at three of our academies, the Leigh Academy, Longfield Academy and Strood Academy, with the team delivering one of the first workshops of the day which was at the Leigh Academy for a group of cross Trust secondary teachers.

The quiz consisted of a series of questions on current labour market information such as:

What is the National Minimum Wage for 18 year olds?

What percentage of graduate recruiters recruit from any discipline?

What is the average amount of time an employer would read a CV before making a judgement?

How many jobs does an average worker have in his/her lifetime?

And how many are he/she likely to have in the future?

The answers to many of these were a surprise to those attending! Winning teams were awarded with prizes of chocolate for their answers.

Trust Career Learning Development Manager, Lesley Tannock and Careers and Business Links Manager at Mascalls Academy, Lynn Bayliss then went onto explore the Careers “Gold Standard” Gatsby Benchmarks.

These are:

A stable careers programme

Learning from career and labour market information

Addressing the needs of each pupil

Linking curriculum learning to careers

Encounters with employers

Experiences of workplaces

Encounters with further and higher education

Personal guidance

Trust Engagement Development Manager, Louisa Felstead, gave examples of the many Working with Business, cross academy initiatives, both past and present, designed to bring the world of work and business expertise to support learning at our academies.

Edward Enebeli, Trust Leigh Aspire Programme Manager, discussed this new initiative with delegates, explaining the concept of “cultural capital” and its importance and relevance to educational achievement.

Thank you to all teachers who attended and participated in this workshop.

The HR Department

Thank you to a number of Working with Business contacts for delivering workshops at the support staff conference which was held at Strood Academy:

Athelbrae Ltd – Practical report writing

The HR Department – Dealing with difficult people

ZC Social Media- Using social media effectively in business

Alluxi Consulting- Time management – How to achieve your work objectives (and still have a tea break!)